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“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you’re a leader.” John Quincy Adams

Dear Reader,

My tolerance for the present administration in Washington, D.C., has come to an end.

The major players in this administration, after more than enough time in office, have shown themselves to be two-faced, triple-talking, bigoted, smear-happy, opportunistic, money-grubbing, throwers of red herrings; and, masters and mistresses of chaos and confusion.

Enough.

Stop.

It continues, ad naseum. Day after day. Week after week. Tweet after Tweet. (Using the Twitter account of a former private citizen, who is no longer a private citizen since swearing in day January, 2016.)

Enough.

Stop.

Words matter. Actions matter. Words and actions reflect the character of a person. The words and actions of the major players of this administration become more transparent, self-revealing, disturbing and profoundly embarrassing. Undignified. Rude. Petty. Insulting international leaders, long-standing allies, while insulting then complimenting and admiring other leaders of less than applaudable character who torture or murder their own citizens and systematically squelch and incarcerate any whisper of dissent against their own government.

This is some kind of surreal madness. A world turned topsy-turvy. Up is down. Truth isn’t truth. What was stated one day is mocked and denied the next day.

Does this administration believe that enough folks will forget a couple of years from now and be duped again? Do the folks who voted this administration into office continue to believe that these elected officials are making decisions based on their best interest or their own?

How long can the duplicitousness of this administration continue? How many more lies? How many more insults, slurs and misogynistic, racist, bigoted barbs to be shot out and then denied and/or spun away?

Enough.

Stop.

I, for one, have had more than enough. Have you, dear Reader, had enough of this, too? If you answered “Yes.”, my next questions to you are: What are you doing today? What are you going to do the next opportunity you have to stand up and speak out for what you believe?

Finally, I have never liked bullies. I am decidedly uncomfortable with inflated, self-centered personalities. Those three attributes in one person who is the President of the United States is chagrining, disheartening and, ironically, motivating.

Think of all the things you’ve done to “make money”. That, in itself, is a ridiculous concept. We don’t “make money”, the government does. We, you and I, earn money.

I started earning money as a girl – granted an allowance for accomplishing certain chores. Chores done, allowance paid. No chores done, no allowance. Some chores completed, partial payment.

Simple.

Time passed.

At 19 I landed my first “adult” job as a clerk-typist at a social service in Providence, Rhode Island. Paid weekly. Still living at home with my parents in Warwick, RI. Within a few months I fledged myself. Time to go out on my own. One room apartment on the East Side, shared bath, no parking. Independent. Earning money. Paying my own bills.

Time passed.

Many changes.

Some time later I began to see and understand better about what money, as a thing, did to folks. The earning of it, who had more of it, who had less of it and how those two conditions stratified and segregated people from and against each other. Judgements. “Better than” because one had more money. “Less than” because of having not so much money.

This is nothing to say about how the getting of that money perverted folks – what one did to get more, as if the flash and bling and apparent “power” that all that money was had made a person, somehow, superior or more influential, ultimately.

I still earn money and appreciate what it allows me to do – support a household, buy food, purchase something beautiful, share it to support a charitable cause or new initiative. There are times, however, when I think about the earlier tradition of barter – I have something you want, you have something I want, we determine a fair value, make the deal and each of us walks away satisfied and happy. Simple. Neverthemore, in most Westernized societies, barter has faded and it’s the dollar that rules.

Next time you think about money, think about what it really is – a coin or a decorated piece of paper – and, what it takes to earn it, how the having or not having it creates false and devastating divisions between us (as people and as nations); and, what’s the true value and human cost of “earning money”.